Christmas Can't Be Very Far Away
by XenaLin
Summary: Karen remembers a Christmas long ago. Oneshot. Bad summary. Hope you like it. Based off of the song with the same name.


Oneshot.

**Disclaimer: No ownership of Will, Grace, Karen nor Jack. Nor of New York City or Manhattan or the show itself. Just the characters I created myself. **

Karen sat by the window in her old rocking chair. She rocked slowly back and forth as she looked out through the cold, frosted glass. White, small snowflakes fell, gently floating through the air and as it landed, covering the ground or object it landed on. Every little snowflake helped and finally an object or a piece of the ground was completely covered.  
She sat there, thinking back at a christmas almost forty years ago. She smiled at the memory as she leaned her head back against the backrest of the chair.  
Every once in a while she could hear the fire spark in the fireplace as it ate the wood, slowly and lingering, leaving nothing but ashes. Soon that would be her. She knew her time was coming to an end very soon. This would most likely be her last christmas in this lifetime. She had treasured every single one in her ninety-two year old life.  
That christmas almost forty years ago was one of the best ones she'd experienced. As she sat in her chair, looking out through the glass into the darkness and snowflakes, she remembered:

'_Let's go Wilma' Karen said in a happy, cheerful way. 'Let's go ouside. Come on kids!' she shouted up the stairs.  
Will and Karen was married since __fifteen years and had three beautiful kids. Lucas William Stanley, James Jack William and Melissa Grace Karen Walker Truman was 12, 10 and 8 years old now and they were smart. Very smart. All three went to the best school Will and Karen could've found and their intellects were above that of the normal for their age.  
Both Will and Jack, their gay best friend, was joking about that all the time due to Karen's earlier drinking and pill-taking.  
'How can they be this smart, with those brain damages?' they joked.  
Karen knew it was a joke, but in a way it actually hurt her. She knew what she had done in the past was extremely stupid, but she had given it up once she had gotten together with Will, and that was almost sixteen years ago.  
__Now she stood all bundled up in her coat, winterboots and a pair of gloves and a hat on. She wanted to go outside, but not alone. It was a perfect day for playing around in the snow. _

**Little bits of heaven  
Floating gently by the window  
Soon this dirty city will be  
Covered with a new snow  
Lets put on our winter boots  
Go outside and play  
Christmas cant be very far away**

_Will sat in the couch in the livingroom, watching the news on the TV. The weather came up very conveniently.  
'Kare, it's gonna be really cold today. Why don't we stay inside by the fire and have a nice time instead?' he asked with playfulness in his voice.  
'Forget it Wilma' she laughed at his lame attempt at getting inside her pants. She knew him by now, and she didn't say no to him but she really wanted to get out.  
The day was perfect, the sun was shining from a clearblue sky without as much as a tassel of white clouds.  
Karen pulled down her hat over her ears and once again she yelled up the stairs with her high-pitched voice.  
'Kids come on, let's get out in the snow!'  
'Karen, please' Will said as he muted the TV and got out into the hallway, where he saw this cute-looking creature. They had been together for almost sixteen years now, and they had known each other before that as well. Even so, she still made his heart flutter at the mere sight of her. It didn't matter what she was wearing or if she was newly awake from a nights sleep with messy hair and no make-up on. She was still the most perfect and beautiful woman he had ever known. Not even his highschool girlfriend and still best friend was more beautiful than Karen Walker.  
'What?' Karen asked as she saw Will.  
'Nothing, just .. you're beautiful' he smiled and put his coat and gloves on. 'Kids come on!' he shouted not even seeing that they were coming down the stairs. _

**Weather girl says bundle up  
Its gonna be a cold one  
Ill put on my wooly hat  
Youll wear your dads old stetson  
Pretty lights are everywhere  
Shining night and day  
Christmas cant be very far away  
**

_Finally they were all ready, all five of them. They got outside, playing around in the snow, making snowangels, throwing snowballs. After a couple of hours of having fun, they decided to go out and about on the town. They were still living in New York City, but not in neither Will's old apartment nor Karen's old mansion. They lived on Manhattan still though.  
They walked the streets, watching the christmas decorations. Suddenly they saw a window where the sign said: 'Decorations by: Grace Adler Designs'. Will smiled, as did Karen.  
'Mom, isn't that aunt Gracie?' Lucas asked her. She nodded. 'Yes, she's decorated this window.' They looked up. The sign said: 'Barney's'.  
_'_Wow, again' Will smiled. 'She's getting more recognition, it's great.' He was proud of her. She had struggled for so long, but finally it was paying off.  
__They entered the store, where in the lobby they had a Santa that took pictures with kids and listened to their wishes. Both Melissa and James wanted to do it, while Lucas said no but finally caved in as Karen and Will urged them to do it.  
_'_After we're done, we go get tree-shopping' Will promised them. He knew that was one of the things they loved about christmas.  
__After about half an hour in line for their turn in Santa's lap, they moved out of the store, and off to the nearest christmastree-seller. They found one about ten minutes walk from Barney's. Along the way they looked some more in the store-windows they passed, doing some window-shopping. After all, that was free.  
People around them were hurrying to where-ever it was they were going, not one was slowing down to look in the windows. Their lives were too busy, too hectic or too important for them to let anything distract them from it.  
Will shook his head as he saw them. He used to be one of them. Now he treasured every moment, like he had never done before.  
_'_How about this one dad?' Lucas asked him and snapped him back to the present. He looked at the tree his son was pointing at, and smiled. It was a small tree, not big enough.  
'Son, it's too small. We need a bigger tree than that.' He answered.  
_'_How about this one daddy?' Melissa said as she stood by one of the biggest trees in the lot.  
'Yes, that's the one we should have' Will said and approached the seller.  
'Honey, you sure it's not too big?' Karen asked as he paid the seller what they owed.  
_'_No, it'll be fine, we can trim it if it needs to be.'  
_'_Alright, I suppose you're right' Karen said, not knowing if that was true.  
'Of course' Will spoke, smiling at her as he lifted Melissa up in his arms. 'Let's go home.'  
The tree would be delivered to their front door that very afternoon. 'Tonight we can decorate it, what you think?' he asked the kids and they all nodded, eager to do it.  
'Very well, then that's what we'll do' he smiled as he leaned down and kissed Karen's cheek. _

**Lets take a walk downtown and  
Go dream shopping in the mall  
The kids can do the santa thing  
Photographs and all  
Well get the biggest tree this year  
And trim it to the top  
And spend a whole lot more  
Than what weve got  
But so what**

The years went on, and the kids grew up and got too busy for tree-shopping and decorating and the familydinners.  
Karen sighed as she sat in her old rockingchair, watching the white, soft but cold snowflakes cover the ground somewhere out there in the dark.  
The fire sparkled in the fireplace and she sighed as she leaned back with a blanket covering her legs. She was ninety-two years old, and was a widow since five years now. Will had gone one new years eve, five years ago. They had been married for over fifty years then. She still missed him enourmously, but she knew he was in a better place. She also knew that she would join him soon enough. She could feel it in her entire body.  
'Mom, are you alright?' she turned her head and saw her oldest son stand there. Lucas was a doctor now. Steel-grey hair, but eyes that he had inherited by his mother. He was a big, strong and handsome man, and married to a beautiful woman with whom he had raised three kids of his own. Those where now late teens and they were all visiting Karen in her home. She still lived in the same place she had lived in for the last fifty-five years. The home where her kids had grown up in, she could still hear their laughter and talk in the hallways, in their old rooms. In the kitchen or livingroom.  
'Yes, Luke, I'm alright' she smiled at him. He smiled back.  
'Jimmy and Mel is here' he spoke. 'As is aunt Grace and uncle Jack.'  
'Send them in' Karen spoke, suddenly very eager and vital. She got up on her feet. She could still walk even though it went very slow, she refused using a cane or a wheelchair. As long as she could, she'd walk on her own two feet.  
Her old friends and her kids and grandkids came in to greet her and wish her a merry christmas. She smiled as she was surrounded by the people she loved more than life itself. The only person missing was Will, though she knew she would re-unite with him before the spring.  
'_Karen, that's cold' Will's voice echoed in her head as she remembered that day long ago in the snow. She had just thrown some snow on to his neck that wasn't covered with a scarf. __  
She smiled at him as he came up to her, lifting her up in his arms and laughed as he spun around with her. _

**Come next spring  
I know we will be  
Ready for the sunshine  
Right now throwin snowballs  
At each others such a fun time  
Kids will think were crazy  
For a while and thats okay  
Christmas cant be very far away  
Christmas cant be very far away**

**----------**

A/N Okay, so I realise it's not Christmas yet, and I know it's not very very good, but I'm rusty so bear with me. I just wanted to write this one since I love this song. R&R please, and no flames.


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